When I moved from the bay area to Germany, I suddenly had to actively manage the cash in my wallet and intentionally bring coins -- coins, people! -- with me around town. Felt like taking a step backwards in time, really annoying.

If you use the "wrong" bill denominations or don't have the right coins, cashiers can get irked at you too. It's so backwards compared to not having to think about it.

As someone who lives in Germany I find this surprising. Yes, people expect you to have bills of the right size. But coins? Never encountered that.

Cashless is more convenient. But given how fundamental money is in our society, I would never be fine with a centralized system that controls all payments. That is simply too much power in one place. I know HN is more about startup-hackers than FOSS-hackers, but I am pretty sure everyone here understands that this is a dangerous development.

> coins? Never encountered that.

Yes, sometimes cashiers ask if I have certain coins to make giving change easier.

Also you need coins for shopping carts.

> Yes, sometimes cashiers ask if I have certain coins to make giving change easier.

You would have encountered the identical behavior in the bay area if you'd paid for things in cash. That's not because the cashier expects you to have the coins; it's an extra effort on their part to make things more convenient for you.

I always found Germans pretty accommodating about breaking notes, though I wasn't trying to spend Bin Ladens ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_euro_note